Sleep, Bike, Eat, Work

Not necessarily in that order.... Since finishing my Masters, I have found things a bit liberating so to speak. I can actually concentrate on riding my bike. For some that will sound weird, just go and ride. However, with responsibilities it doesn't always go that way. I was amazed at how school was such a limiting factor.

About a month ago I switched to my previous Endocrinologist, Dr. Barnett in Chandler. I was seeing him when I had no insurance and paying fees out of pocket. I didn't mind because we had intelligent conversations about my care, and would work as a team to try things in order to improve. When I was working as a teacher I finally got insurance. In 2013, it was time for me to do a five year scan to see the status of my cancer. The problem was Dr. Barnett was not the right doctor for these scans and evaluations.

I had to switch doctors. So I switched, and for simplicity stayed with her after the scans. I was happy that I was clear, and thought that my meds were ok, but nothing great. It did get to the point that I was being treated solely based upon my blood work, and I hate that. It takes little into account in how I feel, my exercise performance and a list of reasons beyond that.

I switched back to Dr. Barnett. I was feeling so bad in February I simply stopped taking what was my previous doses, and started putting on weight like crazy. Mind you I wasn't feeling any better. On my first visit we decided to try something different, that we had not tried before, and that my previous Endo would never consider. We designed a dosage of Naturethroid and synthetic Synthroid. Standard Endo's normally prescribe just Synthroid to someone like me. They feel if the body is working correctly, that it will strip the T4 Synthroid down to T3, T2 and T1. Mine will to some effect, perhaps not super efficiently though.

Naturethroid is a natural desiccated thyroid, meaning that it has naturally occurring levels of T4, T3, T2 and T1. This is the best I have felt in a very long time, years in fact. My testosterone seems to be working better (a factor of the T1 availability). Through this week I have been trying to ride and lose weight. I am actually able to lose weight without a supreme struggle. Now this is not to say that I have a normal life and diet, far from that, but I have finally found something working for the time being.

A few weeks ago I was at 230 pounds, and felt that I couldn't do much about it. Short of fully starving, not much was slowing down my weight gain. This week I have been progressing down, and probably will be around 220, maybe lower on Sunday. I was about to hit 222 today in fact. This week has finally showed me that I was never in a reasonable balance with my meds for way over 5 years, I was fooling myself when I felt ok.

I was listening to the Dr. Drew Podcast that had Bald Bryan (Bryan Bishop) as a guest. Bryan works on the different podcasts and radio shows of Adam Carolla. He recently went through a type of brain cancer, and has written a book that I want to buy and read. While we have different cancers, he advocated one great thing: you have to seek out the best care for yourself. He had to switch doctors, and it wasn't a case of being told what he wanted to hear, but to find someone to work as a team with. In his case, he was able to find one of the best doctors in the world in Los Angeles to help him. I agree with Bryan, you have to do what is right for you, find the best, find someone that works with you. It is your life, and you have to Come Back from Cancer on your terms.